The situation in Ukraine...

[djpannda]

You already had Russian platoons surrendered:



There are a lot of Russian people against the war, hence all the protests. I suspect that even the rise of Putin approval is simulated but time will tell. Meanwhile this is what happens when you send conscripted kids to a war they are not ready for nor they believe in.

Right now they don't have enough forces deployed to take Ukraine, but I think Putin is playing the waiting game. Increase forces when and if needed. He is aware that the allied forces are in a delicate situation, where action might start a war that might escalate quickly to everyone, so hardly anyone will want that. On the other hand innaction will create the popular divisiveness he so much likes to create. Look at this very thread where Putin appologist went from criticising Biden and Europe for the thought of meddling to calling him and them weak on a matter of few days.

Meanwhile Ukraine is alone:
View attachment 299494

The plan is probably to push Ukraine into a corner where they'll have to make a lot of concessions like forgo of territory, sign a promise to give up joining NATO and even possibly cut on the army they've been building up. That would be a "peaceful" resolution that'd give Russia the victory and allow it to get away with murder.

If not, Putin can keep this up forever, he has plenty of bodies to feed the cannons, or just got tired of it and increase the offense.

Either way, for people with the heart and mind in the right place, they have ways up for them to be able to contribute.

I don’t think Putin can keep this up forever.. in fact that Russian economy is down 34% in a day. There have Record number of protest in Russia against the war. It might be time for Putin stranglehold to be over ..

Plus now even Anonymous is fighting Putin (I say Putin not Russian because normal Russian don’t want this )

 

[pustal]

I don’t think Putin can keep this up forever.. in fact that Russian economy is down 34% in a day. There have Record number of protest in Russia against the war. It might be time for Putin stranglehold to be over ..

Plus now even Anonymous is fighting Putin (I say Putin not Russian because normal Russian don’t want this )

I hope to be wrong but Russia is not a democracy. Is not like that he is going to lose a fake election to an urimaniun poisoned candidate. Even if people protest and revolt, the key to a successful revolution is the support of the military. Like I pointed earlier, the military officials are indoctrinated in their eurasianist ultranationalism and also are well rewarded for their loyalty.

Protests will be disregarded, undercovered by their media and even painted with a negative tone. If that doesn't work, I wouldn't be surprised if they would be squished like in Tianmen Square.

The only pressure I see working is if too many oligarchs turn on him due to the international sanctions, but that didn't work before and they believe they can bully their way back and further to economic hegemony through oil needs and other resources.

As for Anonymous, that threat is relative to whoever call themselves Anonymous and join in. I don't think they are scared in that regard. Russia has claimed a safe haven for hackers on the condition they don't attack Russian targets and have financed many others acrossed the globe.

 

[UltraDolphinRevolution]

I still cant figure out why the fuck we dont just take these fucking scum out. Kill all these fuckin leaders and anyone following that doesnt treat people right. Russain, china, and north korean leaders. Just wait till they on stage, drone strike and boom fuck them all. Bomb any nation that disagrees. Soon noone will disagree. Shut up and get back in fuckin line. Biden with his dumb slap on the wrist...bet money within 6 months (probably within a week) china will do the same with Taiwan. Everyone knows biden is too weak and in their pocket so he wont do anything. Dont believe me look at hunters laptop.

You sound like you only consume Disney movies and CNN. If you were to take out the Chinese president, he would be replaced by another. You think Chinese unification is the ambition of one man? It is a Western fairytale that China or Russia are being held hostage by rogue leaders. Putin and Xi are an expression of the desire of their respective people, just like that weak Canadian president is an expression of Canada.

 

[Searinox]

I condemn the tepid response of nations such as Germany for not providing enough weapons, opposing cutting Russia off SWIFT, and not going broader with their sanctions to both ban Russian flights on their territory as well as reduce diplomatic relations with Russia to the barest minimum.

Russia needs them more than they need Russia, and the alliance can surely work together and share to solve one anothers' hardships as a result of this move. The UK was a good example of what kind of sanctions to deal with. The US was somewhere in the middle and should have fully blocked Russia from all US dollar transactions.

I wonder what all they are waiting for. Germany said it's saving a SWIFT disconnect for the future, but Russia is already not listening. At this point the logic would be to keep escalating sanctions until they do listen, or all possible sanctions have been exhausted, whichever comes first.

My nation is for all the harshest punishments, and I think those who are should band together as a united bloc and either pressure the others or act by ourselves. Time would be on our side and such a decision would become more and more accepted rather than not.

Putin was also surprised by NATO's refusal to give an inch throughout negitiations, pressures, and threats. We should take this one step further and re-include a demand to step out of Crimea as integrally and as seamlessly as that to step out of Dontesk and Luhansk. Because honestly it's as unlikely to get heeded as everything else, but at least it will be consistent, principled, and outrage him more. Because he is playing a mind game and at a time when his pressure is being increased, the pushback should be more not less. Otherwise it signals to him that it is working.

Anyone reading this from Germany, France, and Italy, please e-mail or call your representatives and tell them to disconnect Russia from SWIFT. Tell them you'll remember their decision in the next election. After this atrocity, when the Ukrainian army is extinguished and Russia's puppet regime is put in place, there simply cannot, in any way, be a return to business as usual. How can it be more daunting to switch off an economic system than see people shelled to death?

Putin expected most of this. And he can win in Ukraine. But at the end, he can at least exit this latest confrontation with the rest of the world with an unpleasant shock and a fat lip. On that note, I wish Finland entered NATO. They know first-hand what it's like to be blackmailed into "neutrality" by Russia. It would be the ultimate middle finger for Putin if at the end of this whole ordeal, he now has more - not less - NATO border to be concerned about.

 

[pustal]

There are a lot of Russian people against the war, hence all the protests. I suspect that even the rise of Putin approval is simulated but time will tell.

Yup:

Sending troops into Ukraine is unpopular
Sending arms or deploying Russian troops into Ukraine is unpopular — and has only become more so as Russians tire of the war Moscow and its proxies have waged in eastern Ukraine since 2014. According to our latest survey of 3,245 Russians in December, just 8 percent think Russia should send military forces to fight against Ukrainian government troops there. Only 9 percent think Russia should train or equip separatist forces with Russian arms.
Does Putin really want regime change in Ukraine?
Support for armed intervention has fallen by nearly half since 2016. And that drop has occurred among supporters of Putin’s United Russia Party, Communists and the nationalist LDPR party alike. Among those most nostalgic for the Soviet Union, for whom restoration of the Soviet sphere of influence could be expected to resonate most, fewer than 10 percent want to see Russian troops fight in Ukraine.

However:

The surveys also suggest that while Russians do not want to annex Ukraine or to treat the West as an enemy, they do think it is important to resist NATO. At home, Putin has been emphasizing that NATO is to blame for the ratcheting up of tensions, and the public appears to share this view. Three in 4 Russians we surveyed think NATO will try to weaken their country if Putin does not stand up to it. Consistently over many years, surveys show that Russians see NATO as a threat even as they want good relations with the West.

Another thing that makes direct involvement really tricky: it could easily sway Russian popular opinion in favor of escalating things. Fighting a country that doesn't want to fight and fighting a country with its people united on it are two completely different beasts.

 

[Dust2dust]

just like that weak Canadian president is an expression of Canada.

There is no president in Canada. Trudeau is a prime minister. But yeah, I get your point and agree. I hope he gets serious competition in the next election, which didn't happen in the last two.

 

[UltraDolphinRevolution]

It is very interesting how they now constantly speak of peoples (Völker) and the Ukrainian people (Volk) on German television. In past decades they have avoided the term like the plague (e.g. there is no German people, just a German population).

 

[Xzi]

so USA already achieved forgiveness for all their sins just because they got old, super old, like 15 years old.

I said absolutely nothing about forgiveness, so this feels like yet another variation of whataboutism.

In the end my opinion is that the invasion is indeed a violent move and Russia is to blame, but USA with their NATO idea and their ban on a gasoduct 7000 km away from their territory made the matters WAY WORST.

The US did nothing to force Ukraine's hand on NATO membership, and the US does not have the power to cancel Germany's energy contracts. You're still digging for any excuse to justify the actions of a madman...just stop. A good excuse doesn't exist. You might as well be claiming that Russia invaded because Biden sneezed recently, for as asinine as this is starting to get.

 

[UltraDolphinRevolution]

The US did nothing to force Ukraine's hand on NATO membership, and the US does not have the power to cancel Germany's energy contracts. You're still digging for any excuse to justify the actions of a madman...just stop. A good excuse doesn't exist. You might as well be claiming that Russia invaded because Biden sneezed recently, for as asinine as this is starting to get.

EU countries are part of NATO. It goes hand in hand. In 2014 the US revealed their hand (s. Victoria Nuland, Joe Biden) regarding Ukraine. I believe the snipers were also American or American-funded. Russia had no interest in escalating the situation on the Maidan. Doctors (which the BBC admitted much later) revealed that both sides were shot by the same types of bullets. The investigation into this was put on hold by the new Ukrainian regime. The EU pushed Ukraine to decide between it and Russia. I doubt the Americans were not involved in this. The EU is America´s lackey.
And of course the US can force Germany to cancel its contracts. Are you kidding me? Trump put sanctions on all companies involved in the projects. Who knows what Germany had to do to get them lifted. Just so you know, the US can kidnap you and detain you indefinitely without a trial. The only countries in which the Americans possibly cannot do this are the so called axis of evil.

 

[subcon959]

Is this a common sentiment in the US or is it fringe?

 

[dude1]

There is no president in Canada. Trudeau is a prime minister. But yeah, I get your point and agree. I hope he gets serious competition in the next election, which didn't happen in the last two.

Won’t matter if he does, the way our current first past the post systems districts are all written up basically if Ontario and to a lesser extent Quebec want Trudeau, Trudeau wins.
but let’s be serious even if the “conservatives “ win they Are “liberal lite” those two parties platforms are almost identical in theory and functionally identical

they’re just crony capitalists, The definition of establishment elites and the uni-party.

but let’s be real, it’s not like the NDP has had a real chance & in the last few elections they’ve just been liberal lapdogs compromising their principles without any concessions and just siding with them.
they might just end up being as corrupt as the liberals, Who knows.
they just haven’t been given the opportunity so until they get a majority I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
so I’d vote for NDP before the other two especially if my riding remains a swing district, otherwise I’d have to vote PPC (even though that’s more of a protest vote then being functional for now.)

But without the election reform that Trudeau promised and they never delivered on I doubt we’ll ever get a Center-right libertarian party like the PPC or something like that (especially with how they’re lied about in the media ) even though that would be an actual change in pace.

without doing that drastic of a change just expect more of the status quo with the uni-party and they’re controlled opposition slowly meandering towards the same goals.

 

[linuxares]

I'm personally not going to pick a "side" (as if it were a sport) nor do I think NATO/EU butting in will help, if anything, it'll just make it worse. Look at what they did to Libya.

The media is hyping this up to be the end of the world or world war three. They really have sick twisted minds.

Except Libya is sadly a third world country where they think Religion is a good way to control a country...

 

[JuanMena]

Except Libya is sadly a third world country where they think Religion is a good way to control a country...

God Bless America?

 

[linuxares]

God Bless America?

I don't need to express my views on what I feel about the US

 

[JuanMena]

I don't need to express my views on what I feel about the US

Oh ... pffft, c'mon... they won't do anything to you.

Unless it's a movie.

 

[dude1]

Being ethnically half Ukrainian half Russian I am of two minds on this, on one hand historically the majority of the Ukraine sovereign nation that we know of today has been part of Russia for the majority of recorded history whether it be the Russian empire or the USSR etc. or one of the many satellite states around it, it was really only created to be a large puppet state for the Soviets in its current state.
So it’s like if Putin hypothetically took over the majority of the country leaving only the city state of Kiev for the historical Kievian-rus people, there is historical precedent for him to wanted to do so.

there is also the fact that in recent history in 2014 Pro Russian elected Head of Ukraine was ousted in favour of a presumed western/NATO puppet leader installed by the Western aligned countries.

on the other hand, I don’t want war and I don’t want the West drug into a regional conflict.
The sad fact is in modern politics the Ukraine is not a NATO member and the US and Canada should stay out of it along with the other NATO states (sure build up deterants so he won’t hit a NATO member after the fact, if he does then we’re drug into World War III whether we like it or not)

I do think it would be stupid for the west kick Russia off of Swift like some are suggesting, if you want World War III that’s how you’ll get it make them feel like they have nothing left to lose.
not to mention they’re being bankrolled by China, so if the West really doesn’t want World War III don’t sanction Russia, sanction China because they’re the piggybank, Russia is just a guns.

also crypto exists so it’s not like if you fully cut off every traditional bank they wouldn’t be able to get money out especially considering they have cold climates and an over abundance of energy especially if they cut off Europe, which is likely to happen if NATO countries butt into a non-NATO regional conflict.

 

[linuxares]

@dude1 so should Sweden get back Finland then?

 

[djpannda]

Is this a common sentiment in the US or is it fringe?

Thats what Ultra Right wing Conservatives wanted to project mostly because anything against President Biden.
Most Normal Right Conservatives are not for this conflict.
the problem is the Normal Conservatives are being slient and all your hearing is the American Nazis sect.

 

[djpannda]

@dude1 so should Sweden get back Finland then?

Wait does that mean Most of Southwest USA goes back to MEXico.. a Good chuck Texas was stated to get on my nerves

 

[Viri]

Spoiler

That's kind of spooky.


Also, I knew Putin would invade. I just don't think he'll take the whole country, as that would be a nightmare to hold onto. He's not an idiot. But hey, who knows?